Checkmate
by andeeforhire
Summary: S.H.I.E.L.D had no idea what it was in for when they brought in a suspicious young man. {Inside Joke}


_Checkmate | Avengers | Neither World Series | Mental Crossover Series | Unedited_

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><p>A small girl with beautifully messy curls played with the hem of her pastel floral shirt nervously, her gaze on her bare feet.<p>

Around her, things were docile. Domestic. A young man with a fading tan sat hunched over a table, his fingers nimbly moving wires with practiced eased, even if his brow was furrowed in concentration. A tall girl with dark hair cropped short was sitting against a wall, a thick book in one hand, a cup of steaming tea in the other. Her attention was completely entrapped by the book.

Laying upside down on the couch with a bored expression was a girl with a mess of dark hair and honey blonde ends. Her eyes were a guy her age with spiked up dark blond hair who was shooting at paper cups set on the counter across the room. He never missed.

"Attie?" The upside down girl looked up at the quiet voice, which was actually quiet uncomfortable.

"Yeah, Caleigh?" Attie pushed herself off the couch, barely missing the coffee table with her booted feet, and landed in a somewhat ungraceful crouch. She stood up, and faced the quiet girl with a relaxed stance.

"Well, Harris sort of got captured," Caleigh looked up from her oh-so-interesting shoes to see that Attie was rolling her eyes at the statement.

"Davies," Attie started, sounding all kinds of annoyed. The tinkerer at the table grunted his acknowledgment. "Start tracking our fearless leader,"

"Yeah, yeah," He waved her off, looking put out on having to pause whatever he was doing to the toaster.

The girl that had been sitting against the wall sighed and set her book down. She stood up, careful not to spill her tea. "Rush or tactical?"

Attie looked back at the girl, her hands running through her slightly tangled hair and pulling it into a haphazard ponytail. "The hell should I know? Our man with a plan is in a cage. Either way, suit up, Mace,"

Macy rolled her dark eyes, but left to change anyway.

"Davies?" Attie still sounded bored. Out of context no one would know she was getting ready to save a friend from imprisonment.

"Got a location," He stood up, rolling his sleeves up. He sounded only minutely less annoyed than Attie. "He's in the air,"

Attie's eyebrows raised. "Huh, that's a new one," She turned to the Caleigh, who eyes were wide. "You good to go?"

Caleigh swallowed, trying to soothe her dry throat. "Um, yeah. I think so,"

"Atta girl," Attie grinned. "Autobots, roll out!"

* * *

><p>Tony Stark knew that his life was never going to be easy. But at least it was never going to be boring, either. He'd been betrayed and kidnapped, blown up, nearly killed, and even went toe to toe with a Norse god. And that wasn't even all of it.<p>

Even so, he wasn't exactly prepared when the helicarrier suddenly went into lockdown, trapping him, and hopefully the threat, inside.

He was led onto the bridge, as if that would stop him from finding out what was going on.

The others were already there, Natasha and Clint gearing up with a few other agents to take down the intruder, Steve conversing with a tense Fury, and Bruce curling into himself and avoiding contact of any kind.

"Someone's birthday?" Tony gestured wildly to flashing red lights as he entered the room. He was rewarded with an eye roll from nearly everyone present.

"Not now, Stark," Fury growled out before turning and barking orders at his agents. They all nodded curtly and left the room, Clint the last to leave.

Steve spared Tony a glance. "Director, do you know who was able to get onto the helicarrier?"

"As much as it pains me," Fury started through clenched teeth. His gaze swept over the remaining people on the bridge. "I have no idea,"

"Don't worry everybody," Tony's voice was confident as it caught everyone's attention. "JARVIS was recording. It can be all your ringtones in thirty seconds,"

Only Bruce laughed, a wry chuckle, but preferable than Steve and Fury's glares. Fury broke his glowering and lifted a hand to his ear, listening intently.

"Understood. Barton, sweep the lower decks. Romanoff, double back and look for any sign of the intruder. If you find him and he's hostile, kill on sight," Fury somehow was able to sound even angrier. He turned to the other three men. "Several of our agents were incapacitated with no visible damage. Rogers, I want you to join the search. Stark and Banner, you work on seeing how the hell this motherfucker got in,"

"It was pretty easy considering you're hovering over the Atlantic," At the sarcastic voice, Fury and Steve both slipped into a defensive stance as they turned around. Fury had his gun out and leveled, while Steve moved to block Banner, even without his shield.

Standing almost casually near the windshield were five teenagers, practically dressed for combat. There were variations here and there, mostly in colour, but other than that they were essentially uniforms. All dark grey shirts, two of them wearing leather jackets, and black cargo pants tucked into combat boots. The young man on the end with dark blond hair was tugging on fingerless gloves.

Fury didn't fire immediately, but he didn't lower his gun either. "Who are you?"

The one who had spoken before, a teenage girl of average height with her hair pulled back, took a step next forward. "That is so unoriginal. 'Who are you? What do you want?'"

"'Do you want fries and a drink with that?'" The boy who had put on the gloves added, the beginnings of a smirk on his lips.

"Not that I don't appreciate the snark, and the sass," Tony didn't bother to hide his calling of the suit he'd brought along. "But you do realize that you've broken onto the base of one of the more paranoid organizations, second only to Fox News, right?"

The smallest of the group took a small step to stand next to the speaker, hiding just a bit behind her. Her doe eyes looked unblinkingly at Fury. "We want our friend back, Mr. Fury,"

His good eye narrowed. "Who's your friend?"

"His name is-" The wide-eyed girl started.

"Bishop. We're here for Bishop," The more confidant of the girls interrupted, albeit gently. The smaller girl seemed to understand and nodded.

"Bishop?" Tony asked incredulously.

"The annoying righteous dude you've got locked up somewhere here," The girl answered in tone that suggested she thought it explained everything. "He's probably telling you every design flaw this place has. And you probably want to punch him in the face," She added, a sly grin on her face.

"So, if you could just give him back, we'll be on our way," The guy with the gloves said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, what Cheap Shot said," The girl jerked her thumb in his direction.

"Well, Cheap Shot, uh," Steve looked at the girl who didn't seem to acknowledge the gun still pointed at her.

"Atlas,"

"Atlas," Steve tested out. "You understand we can't just hand over a prisoner. Even if he's your friend,"

"Leader," Atlas held up a finger to emphasize her point. "He's our leader, Ken Doll,"

"That's a new one," Tony commented with a grin.

The girl with doe eyes tugged on Atlas' shirt. The taller girl looked down at her with a brow raised in question. "Bishop didn't do anything wrong. They arrested him because of his eyes," She said quietly.

Atlas rolled her shoulders and turned her attention back to Fury. "So, Gaia here tells me you caged our fearless leader because he's different. I'm pretty sure that's racist,"

Fury cocked his gun threateningly.

"Ooh, I'm shaking," Atlas mocked quivered even as she moved Gaia further behind her. "Cheap Shot,"

"On it," The boy grinned, holding up his left hand, his fingers mocking a gun. He pretended to pull the trigger, and a small, condensed ball of crackling green energy shot out, hitting Fury's gun and knocking it out of the director's hand.

Almost immediately, the gun was replaced by an identical one.

Cheap Shot rolled his eyes and shot that one, too. He pretended to blow at a smoking gun with a wink.

"Um, weren't there five of you?" Bruce spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to him. Fury, Steve, and Tony whipped their heads back at the strangers. They'd been focusing on the ones who were speaking, not noticing the silent others slipping away.

"Don't worry, even if you had been paying attention, Ghost and Cipher would've got away anyway," Atlas didn't look to worried that her job as a distraction was uncovered. "There's a reason we call her Ghost, afterall,"

"Stark, I want you to track those two down. Check the security feed," Fury ordered unnecessarily as Tony was already going through S.H.I.E.L.D's security footage.

"Won't work, Mr. Stark," Gaia offered softly, still holding onto Atlas, treating the girl as an anchor. "If Ghost is hiding, no one can find her,"

"We'll see about that," Tony scoffed, not saying anything about the fact that he'd already went through the footage of when they arrived, apparently by teleportation, and noticed that the girl who they were calling Ghost grabbed the arm of the other boy and they both disappeared. None of the cameras picked them up, including heat signature.

"-get back here now, Barton. Bring Romanoff. That's an order," Fury's voice carried around the bridge, bringing attention back to him.

"Calling in back up already? I feel honoured," Atlas brought a hand to her heart, the other wiping away imaginary tears.

"Gaia, do you mind? We don't want any trouble," Cheap Shot asked, nodding at Fury, Steve, and Tony. "Well, too much trouble,"

"Oh, um, okay," Gaia answered unsure. She raised her slightly shaking hands, palms out. Fury was reaching for the dagger he had hidden in his belt when something wrapped around his legs. He looked down, his eye widening in shock as still growing vines continued to tie him up. He looked over at the others, noting that only Banner wasn't getting the same treatment.

Steve and Tony were trying to fight the vines off, only for their efforts to be in vain when the destroyed vines simply grew back. Bruce looked ready to keel over, his skin turning a sickly green. Bruce vaguely heard a soft whispering before something smooth touched his exposed arm. A calm swept through him, and he noticed a pale blue flower with curving petals was resting on his arm.

Across the bridge, the doctor caught Gaia's doe eyes, and nodded his thanks. She just gave him a shy smile.

"Alrighty, now that that's taken care of, let's just sit back, relax, and wait for Ghost and Cipher to come back with the idiot," Atlas announced with a wide sweep of her arms, no longer the least bit bored. She sat unceremoniously on the floor, her legs crossed.

"Sounds good to me," Cheap Shot agreed, taking a seat next to her, one of his legs stretched out, his arms resting on the other one. "You think Cipher'll hack into their files? Try to find a way home?"

Atlas shrugged. "Eh, half to get us home, half for shits and giggles,"

Gaia giggled, sitting on the back of her legs next to Cheap Shot who shot her grin.

"Let us go," Fury ordered as he struggled against the still writhing vines.

"Shh," Atlas waved him off, not bothering to look at him. "Adults are talking,"

_"Fury, this is Barton. We're here. What's the order?" _Clint's voice buzzed in the director's ear.

"Same as before. Kill on sight," Fury said as lowly as he could manage.

_"Understood," _

An arrow pierced itself inches from Atlas' knee. She raised a brow at that.

"That was a warning shot," Clint's voice carried. "Next one goes in your eye,"

"Cheap Shot, I think we found your dad," Atlas joked. Cheap Shot ignored her taunt, poking at the arrow in curiosity.

Neither of them seemed bothered by the threat of being impaled by an arrow. Only Gaia looked reasonably concerned, her face flush.

"Atlas," She pleaded, moving behind the taller girl. Atlas stood up, and pulled her hair free from the ponytail, the golden ends standing against the dark hair and outfit. She put it back up, this time tightly, and flashed the shy girl a grin.

A gunshot rang out making both Cheap Shot and Gaia dive for cover, him grabbing her arm and pulling her behind the screens and chairs. Atlas just stared at the bullet that had tried to bury itself into her forehead. It had stopped as soon as it hit her skin, and fell to the floor without causing damage.

"That was lame," Atlas said. She bent over to pick the bullet up, giving it a once over before shoving it into her pocket. "Souvenirs are fun,"

"Who are you?" Natasha asked as she stepped into view, her hard eyes going over the vine wrapped men and the oddly serene Bruce. They went back to assessing the much too relaxed girl who looked at the older woman with an annoyed expression.

"You ask the same lame things your angry pirate boss does, Ginger Snaps," Atlas snapped. "And you might as well put your gun down. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of bulletproof. And arrow-proof," She added, almost as an afterthought.

"Hawkeye, free the others," Apparently, Natasha had taken the girl's statement as a challenge because she stalked towards Atlas with a fierce determination. Atlas, for her part, looked bored again.

Clint swung down from the raptors where he had been hidden, and moved first to Steve, letting Fury and Tony suffer for just a bit longer. When he realized that just tearing or cutting the vines away wasn't doing anything, he grabbed the end of it near Steve's head and began to unwrap him, noting to himself how strange this day was.

Natasha was a few feet away from Atlas who adopted a trained defensive stance that the redheaded woman recognized. She didn't let it get to her, and instead spun on one foot unexpectedly and gracefully, the other one coming up to kick the younger girl's head.

Letting out a groan of pain, Natasha gingerly grabbed her foot, feeling as if she had just kicked a brick wall barefoot. Atlas didn't look too concerned about it, just brought her first back. Natasha was able to dodge out of the way of the oncoming strike, mentally thankful when she saw the small fist make a dent in the floor.

"What are you?" Natasha asked, venom and curiosity in her voice as she stepped out of the girl's range of attack.

A strange look passed over the girl's face. "I don't know," She answered honestly before gearing up for another attack.

"We got him!" A happy voice rang out, distracting Atlas long enough for Natasha to get away safely, her hand wrapping around her gun as she aimed it at the newcomer.

A girl with cropped dark hair walked onto the bridge, dragging a disheveled young man behind her. Another guy was behind them, trailing them with a grin.

Natasha was hesitant to fire her weapon this time, not knowing what surprises she would get in return.

"Finally," Cheap Shot murmured as he pulled Gaia and himself from their hiding spot. He was careful to hide the small girl behind him as he moved closer to Atlas. Ghost and Cipher guided the wide eyed prisoner towards them, both looking all kinds of pleased with themselves.

"Shut up," Ghost said when they were all standing together. "Cipher wanted to play with some of their toys,"

"In my defense," Cipher spoke up. "They looked fun. And they were," He grinned.

"You guys are terrible at escape plans," Bishop muttered, running a hand through his messy hair in an attempt to tame it.

"Really? I think we did pretty good, considering," Atlas shrugged off.

Bishop looked around the bridge with a calculating eye. "Really? Because I can already see twenty-three ways to improve on your strategy. What ever happened to staying below the radar 'til we find a way home?"

"I'm sorry, which one of us got captured by an angry pirate?" Atlas asked rhetorically, gesturing between the two of them. "Did your all-seeing eye not see that?"

"Um, we need to go," Gaia said softly. She looked around at the bewildered looks they were getting.

"Gaia's right. We need to scram," Cipher agreed. He held out his right arm which they all grabbed on to, even as Atlas and Bishop continued to bicker. "Command 23, Atlas-Demon-6-8-Bishop,"

There was a soft crack! and suddenly the group was gone, no trace of them left.

"I want to know who they are, what they are, and I want to know three weeks ago!" Fury demanded as he stepped out of the last of his vine imprisonment. "And get me the file we had on the prisoner," He added with a growl, still glaring at where the kids once were.

"What happened?" Bruce asked innocently, looking as if he had just broken out of a trance.

"Are you kidding me, they stole my phone?" Tony exclaimed, throwing his hands up.

* * *

><p>"-and I still say you should've come up with a more coherent plan instead of breaking into a top secret government base," Harris scolded as he stepped out of the bathroom, the steam from the shower drifting behind him.<p>

"And I still say you should shut the hell up," Attie countered, once again laying upside down on the couch.

"How'd you even know I was arrested?" Harris asked as he dropped down next to Attie with a sigh.

"You know Caleigh has trees spy on us," She answered easily enough.

"I'll have to thank her later," Harris said absently.

Attie scoffed. "I got shot for you! Where's my thanks?" She asked, offended.

"You're bulletproof, Attie," Harris deadpanned.

"It's the thought that counts,"

"Oh, will you two just do it and get it over with? The others and I are practically choking on the sexual tension you two have," Jeremy called over to them from where he was shooting at the unripe tomatoes Caleigh was tossing up.

The quiet girl just giggled.


End file.
